In this lesson you will learn how computers represent words and numbers using just two numbers. You will learn to convert numbers into binary and how the computer sees binary digits as letters.
Lesson Objectives
Understand the Binary system (Level 4)
Relate the binary system to computing (Level 5)
Apply your knowledge of the binary system to convert decimal numbers to binary and binary numbers to decimal (Level 6)
Keywords
Starter (5 minutes)
You have each been given a number.
If your number is between 2 and 1024 arrange yourselves in numerical order from right to left.
If your number is a 1 or 0 move to the correct speech bubble.
What can you tell me about the number range?
Activity (10 minutes)
Lets convert some numbers to the binary system by moving our 1's and 0's to the correct places.
Think about a few of the numbers 8, 16, 32, 64 - can you think of any digital communication devices that use these numbers...
So now you can convert numbers to binary code. Well done!
Task (25 minutes)
Computers understand binary code rather than English (think about it - a computer in China wouldn't be any use if it only understood English!)
Each binary digit is called a bit 1
0
are both bits
A single bit does not give the computer much information - so the computer uses chunks of 8 bits called bytes. 01111111 11111111 00000001 10101010
are all bytes
The computer is programmed to recognise each byte as a different piece of information - the alphabet is programmed as a series of numbers - when you press a key on your keyboard the computer receives a byte of information which it uses to display the correct letter on the screen.
Binary Lesson 1
In this lesson you will learn how computers represent words and numbers using just two numbers. You will learn to convert numbers into binary and how the computer sees binary digits as letters.
Lesson Objectives
Keywords
Starter (5 minutes)
You have each been given a number.If your number is between 2 and 1024 arrange yourselves in numerical order from right to left.
If your number is a 1 or 0 move to the correct speech bubble.
What can you tell me about the number range?
Activity (10 minutes)
Lets convert some numbers to the binary system by moving our 1's and 0's to the correct places.Think about a few of the numbers 8, 16, 32, 64 - can you think of any digital communication devices that use these numbers...
How about here
Activity (10 minutes)
In pairs play the Cisco Binary gameSo now you can convert numbers to binary code. Well done!
Task (25 minutes)
Computers understand binary code rather than English (think about it - a computer in China wouldn't be any use if it only understood English!)Each binary digit is called a bit
1
0
are both bits
A single bit does not give the computer much information - so the computer uses chunks of 8 bits called bytes.
01111111
11111111
00000001
10101010
are all bytes
The computer is programmed to recognise each byte as a different piece of information - the alphabet is programmed as a series of numbers - when you press a key on your keyboard the computer receives a byte of information which it uses to display the correct letter on the screen.
Have a go at the worksheet to crack the code.
Plenary (5 mins)
Does this make any sense?